That Free Financial Aid Seminar May be Just a Worthless Sales Pitch

Featured Author:

Mark Kantrowitz

As a nationally recognized financial aid expert, Mark has been called to testify before Congress about student aid on several occasions.

He has served as a guest columnist for the New York Times and the Huffington Post and has been interviewed regularly by major news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MSN, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNBC and more.

Mark is the author of five books, including three about student aid. His most recent book, Secrets to Winning a Scholarship, helps families find and win scholarships. He is also on the editorial board of the Council on Law in Higher Education and the editorial board of the Journal of Student Financial Aid, a member of the board of directors of the National Scholarship Providers Association and a member of the board of trustees of the Center for Excellence in Education.

Mark is ABD on a PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and holds Bachelor of Science degrees in mathematics and philosophy from MIT and a Master of Science degree in computer science from CMU.

Error: To be eligible for federal student aid, the student must
not have any kind of conviction for a drug related offense.

Since July 1, 2010, students may lose eligibility for federal student
aid only if they are convicted of selling or possessing illegal drugs
while receiving federal student aid. The loss of eligibility is for
one year for possession (first offense) and for two years for
possession (second offense) or sale (first offense). The loss of
eligibility is indefinite for possession (third offense) or sale
(second offense).

The student may be able to regain eligibility for federal student aid
by completing a qualified drug rehabilitation program and passing two
unannounced drug tests given by the program.

Error: To be eligible for federal student aid, the student must be
a US citizen or eligible non-citizen. Eligible non-citizens include
illegal aliens.

Eligible non-citizens do not include illegal aliens or undocumented
students.

Eligible non-citizens include only individuals who are in the US
legally, such as permanent residents (green card holders), people
granted refugee or asylum status, people with a certification from HHS
showing a designation of “Victim of human trafficking”, non-citizen
nationals (e.g., people born on American Samoa, Swain’s Island or the
United States Minor Outlying Islands), and citizens of the Freely
Associated States (e.g., Marshall Islands, Federated States of
Micronesia and Palau). Eligible non-citizens will have their status
verified through a data match with the United States Citizenship and
Immigration Services (USCIS) in the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS).

Error: The federal government does not in any circumstances forgive
student loans.

While it is very difficult to get student loans discharged in
bankruptcy, the federal government offers a variety of loan
forgiveness programs, including public service loan forgiveness,
income-based repayment with forgiveness after 20 or 25 years in
repayment, forgiveness for teachers in national need areas, and the
student loan repayment program for military service. There are also a
variety of loan discharge programs, including the closed school
discharge, the false certification discharge, the identify theft
discharge, the death discharge and the total and permanent disability
discharge.